Blinken Uses Israel's New Top Diplomat to Pass Mystery Message to Lavrov: Report
Blinken ignored Moscow's demands prior to the Russian invasion, and has had almost no interactions with Russia since the war broke out.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly used Israel’s new foreign minister to pass along a message to Sergey Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, as the Ukraine War continues to intensify with no end in sight.
The Times of Israel, citing a senior diplomatic official, reported that Blinken asked Eli Cohen to deliver the message. The paper said Cohen passed along the messages.
The paper noted that the official would not confirm the substance of the message. The State Department did not immediately respond to The Trends Journal.
The Israeli official told the paper that Blinken was aware of the scheduled call with Lavrov before a conversation he had with Cohen a day earlier.
We reported that Cohen, Israel’s new foreign minister, indicated in an interview that Benjamin Netanyahu’s newly formed government will be less critical of Russia during its war with Ukraine.
Cohen gave his first speech on Monday and said he will work to “speak less” about Russia in public, while maintaining Israel’s humanitarian support for Ukrainians.
Yevgen Korniychuk, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, told the paper that Cohen’s call today with Lavrov represents a change in Israeli policy, noting that Cohen’s predecessor did not meet with Lavrov.
“Unfortunately, we are getting no condemnation of the mass shelling of our civilians in recent months. Israel is unique in terms of our partners. It remains silent,” he said.
TRENDPOST: Blinken told a Wall Street Journal CEO council last month that the U.S.’s focus is “to make sure that Ukraine has in its hands what it needs to defend itself, what it needs to push back against the Russian aggression, to take back territory that’s been seized from it since Feb. 24, to make sure as well that it has the support economically and on a humanitarian basis to withstand what’s happening in the country every single day.”
Zelensky has refused negotiations for weeks because he is being propped up by Western powers who dream of seeing a weakened Russia emerge from the conflict.
The last paragraph explains it all.